Friday. Not too much going on. Obaachan is getting a bit worn out by Kris and wanted to do some cleaning up, so we took her out for a while. Went to this cool park by the river. Used to be the site of an old castle. Now it’s a big park with gardens, bridges, a stream, small pond, playground, and small shrine in it. Lots of animals to see there. The stream and pond was filled with turtles. Cats running about here and there, ducks, chickens, and this huge fish jumped a good 5 feet out of the water at least three times. Too fast for me to get a picture though.

Saturday. Miranda’s cousin came over with her two daughters. They brought some toys for Kris. The girls are older – high school and college, but they had a great time playing with Kris. Before that, we needed to get out of the house so Obaachan could clean up (again), so we went to an Internet club to check email, etc. Found out the money transfer went through to my bank. Big sigh of relief.

Then went to a book store. Miranda has been reading a lot of manga and obviously enjoying it. For the uninitiated, manga is Japanese comic books / graphic novels, but usually in novel-sized books comprising long series. It’s enormously popular, not just with kids, but with people of all ages. You’ll see business men reading it on the subway, etc. I decided to take the plunge with some real Japanese manga. Bought volumes 1-10 of a series called “Rave” (which has at least 35 or so volumes that I saw). I’m surprised at my reading ability. I got through about 50 pages of volume one the first day (about 25% of the book). I can’t say I understand it 100%, but decent enough to understand most of what’s going on and even enjoy it. I have to ask Miranda about a word here and there, but mostly stumble through it on my own.

One more full day and we leave on Monday. Mixed feelings. I’ll miss it, but definitely looking forward to being back home.